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The National Institute of Health (INS) revealed on Monday the preliminary results of the seroprevalence study in four other cities in the country: Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cúcuta and Villavicencio.
(You may be interested: With 1.7 million doses of Pfizer, vaccination begins in Colombia in February)
This research is important because seeks to determine the percentage of the Colombian population that has been infected with the new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 -including asymptomatic- from blood tests that detect antibodies in a representative number of the population. And it serves, incidentally, to understand the behavior of the infection throughout the country, as it is being done in 10 cities.
Thus, it was revealed that 26 percent of the participants analyzed and surveyed in Bogotá showed specific antibodies against the new coronavirus. That proportionally means that one in four inhabitants of the capital could have been infected.
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Specifically, according to INS projections, would be 2’029.250 real cases, that is to say, more than four times the number that has been detected in Bogotá from diagnostic tests (430,198) to date.
In Bucaramanga, the seroprevalence percentage reached 28 percent, with a range between 26 and 30 percent; which would correspond, based on its official population of 597,316, to 167,248 infected inhabitants at some point.
And in Cúcuta the proportion was located at 30 percent (range between 27 and 32), which indicates that taking its population of 748,948, at least 224,684 people would have already been affected by the virus and would have some type of defenses in their blood.
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In Villavicencio, on the other hand, 35 percent (range 33 and 37) of the people analyzed with blood tests were positive for antibodies against Sars-CoV-2, according to the seroprevalence study. In exact numbers, it would be 175,716 citizens infected at some point in the pandemic.
Martha Ospina, director of the INS, explained at the time that these studies are carried out in people taken randomly through specific sampling, without differentiating if they had already had the infection or had not had any signs of it.
In any case, the INS clarified that these results are preliminary and to see them in their entirety will have to wait until next year, once the field work in all cities is finished and the qualitative information produced by the surveys is analyzed.
(Also: Colombia ends the week with a record of reported cases)
At the end of November, the National Institute of Health had revealed results of the seroprevalence study in three cities. At that time, it was reported that in Leticia, six out of 10 (59 percent) of its inhabitants showed they had antibodies against the new coronavirus, while in Barranquilla more than half of the citizens analyzed (55 percent) were already affected. with the virus and in Medellín almost a third (27 percent).
For now, it remains to know the results of three other cities where samples have been taken: Cali, Ipiales and Guapi.
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HEALTH UNIT
